Posted By Joe Haggerty On March 27, 2009 @ 11:37 am In General | 7 Comments

WILMINGTON — Just when it seemed that the Bruins were enjoying a full complement of healthy, productive skaters, winger Phil Kessel[1] will be out for this weekend’s two games against the Toronto Maple Leafs[2] and Philadelphia Flyers[3] with “an undisclosed injury”.

“He’s not going to play this weekend,” said B’s coach Claude Julien[4], who wouldn’t answer questions as to whether this is an ongoing injury or something the 21-year-old would play through in the upcoming playoffs. “We’re going to assess it as an undisclosed injury that will be reassessed next week. We feel at this stage it’s better to be cautious rather than reckless and we’re going to give him the weekend off.”

Kessel took a big hit against the boards courtesy of Columbus defender Jan Hejda back in a March 10 loss that appeared to hurt his shoulder, but Kessel returned to that game in the third period and hadn’t missed any games since the Blue Jackets[5] game. It’s unknown if this “undisclosed injury” has anything to do with that particular hit or with his shoulder. Kessel had scored 4 goals and 2 assists in the five games since that night against the Blue Jackets, so it wouldn’t appear that the right shoulder was bothering him.